European Earwig

Fascinating facts about the European Earwig

• Those pincers at the tail end—called cerci—can't actually pinch hard enough to harm you, despite centuries of folklore about them crawling into sleeping ears. But they're not decorative either: male earwigs use them in combat with rivals, wrestling like tiny gladiators for territory, and they also help females fold their wings. The real weapon is in the mouth: earwigs are voracious hunters that patrol gardens at night eating aphids, mites, and other soft-bodied prey.
• A female earwig will lay 30 to 50 eggs in autumn, then sit on them through winter without eating—a form of parental care almost unheard of in insects. She guards the clutch fiercely, removing any mouldy eggs with her mouth, and stays with the nymphs for weeks after they hatch. This maternal devotion is why earwigs are among the few insects that can recognise their own offspring, releasing a chemical signature that prevents her from eating her own brood.
• Earwigs have been hitchhiking across oceans on human ships for at least 500 years, spreading from southern Europe to gardens on six continents. A single gravid female hidden in cargo or a ship's timber could start an entire population—which is exactly what happened in North America in the 1900s. Today they're so established that many assume they're native, but they're actually living proof of how one insect, travelling accidentally with humans, can colonise the world.
• At dusk, earwigs emerge from cracks in soil and wood to forage, guided by a sense of touch and smell rather than vision—their eyes are so poor they can barely distinguish light from dark. Yet they navigate complex garden mazes with precision, using their antennae like canes to read the chemical landscape. A single earwig can consume its body weight in food within 24 hours, making them efficient pest controllers that gardeners either curse or celebrate depending on the circumstances.
• Male earwigs have a bizarre asymmetry: their left pincer curves inward more than the right, and they're always left-handed wrestlers. Scientists studying Japanese populations found this handedness is genetic and heritable—and that left-handed males are slightly more likely to win dominance contests. It's one of the few examples of consistent behavioural handedness in invertebrates, suggesting that even in an insect barely visible to the naked eye, evolution has optimised fighting skill down to the curve of a claw.

At a glance

About the European Earwig

In the crepuscular hush, the European earwig stirs, its elongated body unfolding like a dark, armored arrow as it navigates the intricate topology of leaf litter and bark. With a purposeful gait, it moves through the shadows, its pincers at the ready, a formidable yet diminutive hunter in a realm of giant blades and whispered secrets. As it disappears into the undergrowth, the earwig leaves behind a trail of subtle, telltale signs, a testament to its unassuming yet remarkable presence in the hidden world of the forest floor.

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